Warren David

2006 The Sigi Ziering Award for Outstanding Contribution for a Publication in the Journal Clinical Chemistry

Dr. Warren is a senior scientist in the central laboratory at the Norwegian Radium Hospital in Oslo. During his postdoctorial research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, he worked with a group that demonstrated that a neutrophil differentiation factor (G-CSF) therapy ameliorated the neutropenia associated with cytotoxic chemotherapy and accelerated neutrophil recovery following bone marrow transplantation. This growth factor is now in extensive clinical use.

Dr. Warren’s research also helped to elucidate the role played by G-CSF in the pathology and therapy of a variety of inherited neutropenic states including cyclic hematopoiesis and congenital agranulocytopenias.

As a visiting scientist at the University in Bergen in Norway, Dr. Warren developed a number of new assays, including a unique method for the determination of the levels of cytotoxic nucleotide accumulation into the leukocyte DNA of acute lymphocytic leukemia patients receiving 6-mercaptopurine maintenance therapy. Subsequent projects on drug metabolism led him to establish methodologies for the efficient expression of recombinant proteins.

His current research interests include the development of single-chain antibodies as reagents in immunometric assays for tumor marker antigens and the characterization of the extracellular domain of the ovarian marker CA125.

His winning article, “Use of an In Vivo Biotinylated Single-Chain Antibody as Capture Reagent in an Immunometric Assay to Decrease the Incidence of Interference from Heterophilic Antibodies,” describes an elegant new approach to eliminate common inferences in immunometric methods, which if successfully implemented could produce more accurate results in these widely used tests. The paper’s co-authors were Johan Bjerner, Elisabeth Paus, Ole P. Bormer, and Kjell Nusad.